December

 This month is flying by...as usual.  We got to go see FROZEN which was the best Disney movie EVER!

 Lily and Baba spent a few days being really sick...So glad Lily had Stitch and Kitty to take such good care of her!

 A picture of my beautiful baby last night before church.  I can't believe that in a few more months we will celebrate another Gotchaversary.  She continues to grow up so fast!

 Baba as a shepherd and Lily as an angel (which she totally is!) at church this weekend.  Don't you love Jamie's sheep in his pockets!

 My little organizer is at work again making sure Baba knows the correct places to put his dirty clothes... gotta love her signs!

                                             Underpants and socks.....

                                            Shirts and other stuff....

We leave for our family tradition of WDW at Christmas in 6 MORE DAYS!  So, when we return, I will have lots of posts!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our family and friends!  We hope God blesses your families tremendously this next year!

Baba's New Ride

Jamie is thrilled, and Lily is ecstatic because this car is her favorite color!

Christmas Traditions

 As always, we have continued on with our Christmas tradition of putting our tree up at the end of October  Lily enjoyed it once again this year!  We love beginning to celebrate Jesus's birth as early as possible!

A Busy Month!

 Lily got to experience one of her favorite days at school- Pajama Day!  She so wishes that we could have this day at least once a week!

 She painted her first large canvas piece.  She had to paint a scene from Disney World, of course.  I love the fireworks with Tinkerbell flying in the sky, along with all of the Mickey Balloons.  Notice Mickey and Minnie walking toward the back of the castle.  This picture is hanging in her bedroom.

 We visited Kentucky where Lily got to play some Hide and Seek with her 100-year-old Grandmother.  I am amazed at how she can still play with Lily.  They giggle and laugh just like they are the best of friends.  It is really sweet!

 Lily got to ride the Fire Truck at school... with Teodora and her 2nd grade class.

 She also enjoyed the petting zoo at school during our Fall Carnival.

 Lily also got to be on our main stage at church with KidRave- our Kids Worship Team- which was a big event.  She loved being on stage and worshipping God.  This is something she does every weekend, but it is during Elementary Worship.  So, being on stage with our worship team was "the coolest thing ever!"

Along with that, Jamie and I are continuing to exercise daily.  He has lost 105 pounds and I have lost 22 pounds.  I have two more to go, and he is going to try for about 25 more before we start maintaining what we have lost.
   

Redeemed!

 Lily was baptized on September 21st.  She was very serious when she was listening to Pastor Josh before Jamie got to baptize her.

 Jamie was thrilled to get to baptize his baby!  What an awesome experience!

 You can see he is one proud Baba!  This was right after  her baptism when we took her back to the changing area... We got to wrap her in a towel and love on her!  We were so excited!  She said, "I am clean, clean, clean!  My sins have been washed away!"

Then, we got a super happy family moment together!  Lily has been talking about her relationship with God since the summer.  She actually prayed about it over the summer, but we had to make sure she was totally ready for this commitment.

One cool little mention- I was baptized exactly 30 years ago today (September 25th, 1983).  We thought that was pretty awesome!

On Our Way... September 21st

Lily is ready for her baptism!  She has been counting down the minutes....

My Beautiful Baby

Laying around the house... looking beautiful as always!

Washing Lily

Leave Jamie and Lily in charge of the clothes, and this is what I find when I walk around the corner...

Last Few Pictures from WDW

 Baba and Lily decided to take a seat in Gaston's seat at his tavern after we had some delicious brew consisting of frozen apple juice and marshmallow cream.  Yum!

 A picture of us while walking over to Epcot on the last day.

We will see you again in about 3 months- Disney World!

Carousel Riding to Christian Music

During the concerts at Night of Joy, we took a break to ride some rides.  We got on the carousel and didn't even have to get off!  It was fabulous!  This smile shows how awesome it was to ride the carousel over and over again...while listening to our favorite Christian artists playing over the WDW speakers.  Coolest moment!  It was one of our favorites!

Rainy Days in Japan

 And this is why she doesn't mind getting stuck in Japan every time there is a major storm when we are in Disney World....Hello Kitty!  --And that finding a pearl show which she could watch for hours.

Jamie's rainbow picture had a prettier setting than mine, so I thought I would include it, too.

Almost....

While we were in Disney World- (yes, I have more pictures! I hadn't gotten the ones from Jamie's phone yet!)  Lily really REALLY wanted to ride her first REAL roller coaster.  Honestly, I am not quite ready for that moment, but she tried.  She stood as straight and tall as she could at the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster sign.  But, she just has a few more inches to go.  What did I say?   In my mind- Whew!  What a relief!--- But out loud, "Oh well, baby.  Just a few more inches!"

Home Away From Home

 I didn't take any pictures at the concerts because I left my phone in the room, on purpose.  I just didn't want anything to happen to it because the Magic Kingdom was crazy packed.  We had a wonderful time listening to our favorite artists.  Lily loved seeing Jamie Grace and we enjoyed Skillet in front of the castle with fireworks.  Wow!  It was seriously awesome!  But before we went to the concert, we spent another day at Epcot where we got to see Mulan.

 We also went over to Mexico for some nachos.  Lily met a friend who would not stay away from her.  Her crane stayed with her the whole time we ate.  He was sweet- he kept talking and talking to her.

We had a little midnight treat before bed that evening- some Mike Cake Pops which were delicious.  Then the Mickey treats were our breakfast the next morning.  We had to have a little treat while we were there!
Going to Night of Joy was one of our best Disney memories ever!

Waking Up in Disney

 Waking up in Disney World is seriously the best feeling...we headed down to the boardwalk to just walk around before we went over to Epcot for the day.  It really does just feel like home.

 Then, we walked straight into Soarin', Test Track, and Mission Space.  This no wait business is seriously awesome.  There was no need for FastPasses!

WDW- Day #2

 We got stuck in Japan once again on this trip...it is becoming the norm for us...when a huge storm hit.  It was so hot while we were there, we knew that the rain was definitely coming.  But, this time when the storm passed and we walked out- we saw this beautiful rainbow.  Lily was thrilled because we could even see the violet in the rainbow.  Plus, we could see almost the entire rainbow.  It is the largest one she has ever seen.  It was a nice present.

For breakfast that morning, we had our normal Disney World treat- Mickey Chocolate Chip muffins.  I used to love the Blueberry muffins.  But, they don't offer those anymore.  I totally think they should bring them back!

WDW

 So, we spent our first day at Hollywood Studios.  Lily couldn't wait to go see the Disney Junior shows with Princess Sophia, Doc McStuffins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I am really a fan of this age where she still loves these simple shows, but she loves the Disney Channel shows, too.  It just shows the innocence that she still possesses.

 Our next stop, of course, was Star Wars.  This was such a nice time to visit the parks.  There was no one there.  Sure, there were probably a few thousand people- but that is nothing.  We only had to wait in one line the whole day.  So, we finally had the opportunity to get a picture on the Star Wars stuff.

 We walked down the street without the Christmas lights.  It really looked completely different.  We also noticed that there was a China shop- which we have never noticed before because of all of the people!  It is crazy what Disney World looks like when you can actually take everything in.  Lily kept saying, "Look at all the room we have!" She was talking about beside us while we were walking.  Apparently, September is a great time to go!

 So, we did wait for about 25 minutes to ride Toy Story Mania- wish is nothing!  We could have gotten a FastPass, but we were staying there all day.  So, we just decided to wait.  Lily had fun taking pictures of us.

 She saw Andy's crayons and she said, "You know why that pink crayon is still sharp?  It is because Andy doesn't like girl colors.  So, he hasn't used it yet." I had never thought of that line of thinking.  But, sure enough- the other colors throughout the building are used quite well.  She is such a thinker!

September 24- WDW

 So, we decided to head to Disney World for Night of Joy this year.  It is something we have always wanted to do.  Night of Joy is a weekend packed full of Christian artists who perform on three stages in the Magic Kingdom on Friday and Saturday evening from 6ish until 1ish.  One of the stages is located right in front of Cinderella's castle.
   As soon as we arrived at The Boardwalk, we noticed that Michael Tait (from Newsboys) and his band members were checking in right beside us.  That was pretty cool!

We are also a part of the Disney Vacation Club now.  This will give us the opportunity to travel with Lily all over the world.  We love LOVE love to travel, and so does Lily.  She is the best little traveler.  So, we can't wait for her to grow up a little bit more so we can travel to some locations throughout the world like England, Hawaii, and of course- back to Paris.  Until those times though, we are choosing to return to Disney World as often as we can.  Since we are member of the DVC, we stay in our own home location.  For us, we chose the Boardwalk because it is our favorite place.  I had some friends ask about the difference of the room.  So, I have posted some pictures below.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the bed, sitting area, and deck.  But, they look a lot like the regular room- except the space seems so much larger.  Lily kept referring to it as our apartment all weekend.

 So, here is our little kitchen space.  I didn't think we would use it much, but we did.  We ended up getting some to go items from France in the evenings- even our breakfast items for the next day.  We would just microwave them.  It was nice.  Plus, they provided us with paper plates and things in the cabinets.

 I really like the vanity area much better in the DVC room.  It just gave us lots more counter space which is really nice on vacation.

 There was also a walk-in closet which had a vacuum cleaner.  Yes, I did love having my own.  The cleaning crew only comes on certain days.  I really liked just being able to have the room to ourselves and not worrying about when the crew would come in.  Plus, no one was ever knocking on the door.  Not that we are in the room a lot, but it was still nice to know that we had more privacy.

 There was a little entry way when you walked in where we kept our shoes.

 The bathrooms still looked basically the same.  Nothing to get excited about, but they are clean.  That is all that matters.

 This was the little eating area right beside the deck.  This was really nice for breakfast.  I know most of the rooms we have stayed in have these areas, but this was room seemed so much larger.  It had our queen sized bed, a coach area for lounging, the piece of furniture with the flat screen tv and beside it was another small day-bed area where Lily wanted to sleep.  Plus there was a huge area in between the coach and this little table area where Lily could play and have plenty of room in the mornings while we were getting ready or late at night.  The room was great.  Let's face it though- at WDW no one spends a lot of time in their room.  But, when we were there- it was super nice!  We love being DVC members!